Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-16-Speech-3-334"
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"en.20010516.11.3-334"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I should like to begin by thanking the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development for its report, and also by thanking the rapporteur, Mr Jové Peres, for his excellent input.
In my opinion, the Commission’s proposal to extend the current aid regime for a further two years is sound. However, I share the sector’s concern at the Commission’s intention to resort entirely to an operational geographical oil information system for future monitoring of this regime.
We feel this could prove a good monitoring tool, but only a complementary one. We believe it would be more useful and fairer to put in place appropriate checks at the oil mills, not just a geographical information system. Hopefully, such checks would be more effective in preventing fraud.
We do not agree with the Commission’s proposal where it introduces a new concept, that of economic operators. This concept is quite unclear. Any one of us could set up tomorrow as an economic agents’ organisation and withhold significant funds from those genuinely involved in oil production, namely producers’ or interbranch organisations recognised by the Member States themselves.
In our judgement, the key element of the strategy to promote quality is a permanent ban on the marketing of blends of olive oil and other fats. This is essential to pursue fraudulent blending with seed oil. The ban must be central to management of the olive oil market, so as to avoid defrauding customers and to establish a clear policy on quality and food safety.
We endorse the general feeling within the Committee on Agriculture concerning the new designations. They result from extensive consultation with the sector, as does the reduction of maximum permitted acidity for extra virgin oil.
Ladies and gentlemen, no other crop is so closely linked with the people of the Mediterranean and with their culture. No other crop shaped the landscape over thousands of years, as this one has. We are convinced of the environmental value of olive groves in maintaining biodiversity and stemming the advance of desertification. Those of us who live in the area are especially aware of this.
In drafting programmes aimed at improving the environmental impact of olive groves, consideration should therefore also be given to recycling material removed when pruning the groves. Both the olive wood and the leaves can be used commercially, thus taking full advantage of all the by-products of cultivation."@en1
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